Help with Translating Skills from Military to Civilian for Your Resume
When separating from the military or active service, you receive some training and classes about writing a resume. Depending on how closely you paid attention, how seriously you took the assignment and what you want to do for your career, you may have some holes to fill in. You know it's important to translate your military jargon into terms civilian employers can understand, but what you may not know is how to do that.
There are overarching guidelines for how to do this and when you should do it. If you're looking for a federal or contractor job in the same field your military job was in, you may not have to do a lot of translating. They probably use the same acronyms for systems and are used to seeing military terms in their documents.
However, suppose you are changing career paths or looking at a company unfamiliar with the military. In that case, you will find it very helpful to make your position, job description and accomplishments easier to understand. You can't completely erase your military experience – nor should you want to – but you can frame it in a way that easily transfers to your desired civilian job.
Overall, you're looking for short, direct sentences to describe your achievements, not a list of your responsibilities in the role. Avoid using acronyms, even the ones you think everyone knows. Describe your rank or leadership role in terms of how many people you supervised and how much money you were responsible for, instead of the pay grade or military rank.
Note: Even if the company you're submitting a resume to is military friendly or familiar, it doesn't mean they will understand everything from every branch. The branches each use different acronyms to say the same thing so that things could get confusing quickly.
Here are some examples of terms to translate.
Combat - Hazardous conditions
Company - Department or section
Military occupation specialty - Career specialty
Squad or platoon - Team
Reconnaissance - Data collection and analysis
Tools to help you with translating skills
It's often hard for veterans and service members to write their experiences in civilian terms. It may feel like oversimplifying them or that they aren't as impressive. Your military service will get you in the door; in a way, the military reputation precedes you. The ability to effectively communicate your experience will land you the job.
Learn more about GI Bill® benefits and other resources available to veterans and military-connected students.